Thursday, 31 October 2013

Round my way it usually involves vaguely menacing groups of teenagers, who have made minimum effort with their costumes, going door-to-door demanding sweets. Rarely are they grateful, though at least last year I wasn’t threatened with a knife or a gun, so I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies.

Speculation has already started about who will be going where, but Laurent Blanc refused to discuss whether he will be sticking his head into the apple bobbing pool and coming up with Chelsea’s Juan Mata clutched between his teeth.

“The winter window? We'll discuss the period when the transfer window opens,” said a helpful White yesterday.

PSG were linked with Mata in the summer, and with the playmaker still reportedly unhappy at Stamford Bridge, a €35million bid could be on the cards.

A creative midfielder type, preferably left-sided, is top of the club’s shopping list according to L’Equipe, who earlier this week reported than PSG will be trick-or-treating at the doors of German clubs Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 hoping to be given a handful of Haribo and at least one of Arjen Robben, Marco Reus and Julian Draxler.

Robben appeared to pour cold water on the idea of a move to Paris in typically vague fashion.

"It's always an honour when a rich big team [like PSG] show an interest in signing you," he told Bild.

"But everybody knows that I am feeling very well at Bayern at the moment. I don't know anything about the rumour and I only want to think about playing football."

Reus, meanwhile, is also thought to be dans le viseur of Barcelona. Lucky boy.

Not much to report in terms of potential outgoings. Thiago Motta insists he has no intention of dressing up as a slutty nurse and going to a Halloween party at Juventus’s place.

"Football is made of high and lows,” Pastore’s agent Marcelo Simonian told Le Parisien today, as if gearing up to deliver a lecture. “He (Pastore) has had a good time here. But it’s not the time for nostalgia. We'll see what happens in the coming months.”